Fake PayPal email scam: Limited account

If you received an email from PayPal stating “Your account has been limited until we hear from you,” DO NOT OPEN IT! The email is NOT FROM PayPal and is a common scam that practices social engineering by tricking PayPal users into believing their PayPal accounts have a current issue, therefore the account is limited until the PayPal user downloads a file and confirms their identity. DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE FILE. The malicious file being distributed in the fake Your account has been limited until we hear from you email may be titled Update.htm and will immediately infect a computer with malware and/or viruses, including ransomware, spyware, and Trojan horses.

An example of the fake PayPal email has been detailed below. Please note, email content, email subjects, email senders, and etc. may not be identical as described below, but will have the malicious intent. If you receive an email similar to the details below, ignore it, and delete it.

Sender: web-secured1@inc.pay1.com (PayPal) [not actual PayPal email]
Subject: Your account has been limited until we hear from you

========================================================
We need your help
========================================================

Dear Customer,

We need your help resolving an issue with your account. To give us time to
work together on this, we've temporarily limited what you can do with your
account until the issue is resolved.

We understand it may be frustrating not to have full access to your
account. We want to work with you to get your account back to normal as
quickly as possible.

What's the problem?

We need a little bit more information about you to help confirm your
identity.

Case ID Number: PP-503-472-200

How you can help 

Download The Attachment and Confirm Your Account     

Yours sincerely,

How to deal with thePayPal limited account scam

Your PayPal account has not been compromised as this is a scam that is in no way associated with PayPal.com, but if you have fallen victim to the PayPal limited account scam, it is strongly recommended to scan your computer for additional malware using reputable software and remove the infection if necessary. If you downloaded the malicious file or clicked a malicious link contained in the fake PayPal email, please use the instructions below to eradicate malware from your computer.

1. Install the free or paid version of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware software.

   

2. Once Malwarebytes is installed, run the program. If you are using the free version of Malwarebytes you will be prompted to update the database, please do so.

3. Open the first tab labeled “Scanner” and select the Perform full scan option. Click the Scan button to perform a full system scan. Malwarebytes will automatically detect malware infecting your computer system.

4. Once the full system scan is complete, Malwarebytes may prompt a message stating malicious objects were detected. Select the malicious objects and click the Remove Selected button to completely remove the malicious files from your computer (the image below shows a file that is NOT selected).

Malwarebytes will remove any malware infecting your computer system compared to other malware-removal applications. For more Antivirus, Anti-Malware, and Cleaning software recommendations please click here.